Allow me to rephrase. He's failed everytime he stepped up.
You have to analyze the context.
Jorginho - Height 1.80 m, Weight 68 kg
. They didn't let him eat at Chelsea or what?
Fair to say you don't fancy Barca that much, GifBro?
Lets agree to disagree here..
I'm talking about the injuries that Barcelona have been carrying throughout the season, not the ones they have now.
This is their injury list. Also you're talking about past his peak Aguero. Last season he scored 6 goals in 20 matches for City. As for Fati he's not a proficient goalscorer - at least not yet.
Top 2? No chance. Maybe top 4. Their defense is utter shit. Pique, Alba and Biscuits are past it. Sergi Roberto is an overpaid joke. Then there's Dumbele and Cuntinho,... Their squad with or without injuries is really poor.
They finished 1st, 2nd, 4th, 4th, 6th, 2nd, 1st. That's 5 seasons without winning the title, but 2 of them with a good final placement. Not too dire.
Barcelona finished third last season with Messi. They don't have Messi now. Are you saying they won't miss Messi much or am I not following something here?
Barcelona finished third last year because Lenglet and Ter Stegen made unforgivable mistakes that cost many points, among other things.
I'm not a Barsa fan.
Times have changed, the fees for top players these days are insane compared to the past, and the oil clubs still hadn't risen yet(Chelsea had just started).
I don't know all the ins and outs of Serie A but from what I understand these were not singular 'football projects.' Milan and Inter have changed ownership a few times during that period. Juventus won the title in Conte's first season and Marotta's second season.
Barcelona conceded 38 goals in the 2019-2020 season. They conceded 38 goals in the 2020-2021 season. In the current season, they have conceded 19 goals in 16 games, which would project to 45 goals conceded over the whole season. I'm not sure how you can consider this an "unforgivable mistake" over such a long period of time. That's just what Barcelona's defense is.
I'm looking at these statistics and finding the result highly questionable.
Didn't Barca concede first in many games last season? Usually strong team that goes goal behind and end up going all out attack end up with better xG.
Constantly overperforming xGoals/xPoints is usually a sign of great squad quality, clinical finishing, exceptional saves etc. So if anything this shows that Barcelona still had a strong style of play, but just average players (as their xG and xGA are quite close to reality - expected values are based on averages over a lot of players).
Since I'm bored at work, I looked at the xPTs table from 2018 to 2021. Here's a plot of Expected Points vs. Actual points for Real Madrid, Atletico, Sevilla, and Barcelona from 2018 to 2021:
How does it look when you put all teams in that graph, not just the top 4? If my point above should be true, we should see much better correlation over the whole league and the top teams should be outliers.I did the same for the current season:
No correlation whatsoever.
If I have a statistical marker that has no correlation to the thing I'm trying to measure, I would just assume it's not good.
The best way to have an opinion is to watch the 38 matches of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico.
Niemans, I didn't post the statistics website. You did. You said Barcelona lost points because of individual errors, then posted a statistics website that says Barcelona should have conceded more goals than they did. I'm not really sure why you did that.
Yes because they are retired duh!
I put the statistic mainly for expected points, a way of seeing with numbers the development of a season, obviously more things are needed to get an exact idea.
I expressed myself badly, I'm sorry. I want to say that both Agüero and Fati have more scoring ability than Kluivert and Saviola. But with an abysmal difference.
If you have not understood something you can ask, that is what a forum is for. I will try to explain it in the best way although my English is very mediocre
Not sure about this. 33 year old Kun, even without the heart problem and 19 year old Fati, who is constantly injured (17 appearances since the beginning of last season and only 51 in total) doesn't strike me as a better partnership than Kluivert and Saviola in the early 00's.
For me the underlying issue is whether these statistics are descriptive or predictive.
I was bored this afternoon and looked at it further.
I think they are entirely different and if Xavi fails then for entirely different reasons as well. Xavi is idealistic and the question is if a) his system is still competitive in 2021 and b) if he can transport his ideas into the heads of his players. Solskjaer didn't have a system in mind at all. He was all about motivation and man management.
I said this earlier in the thread, he needs players to buy in to his methods. The Al Saad players were ready to run through brick walls for him, this set of Barca players apart from the Nicos and Pedris, aren't interested in all that. He needs complete buy in or the whole thing won't work.
it’s going to take time for sure but 70% of this roster needs to be gutted
Was @Boss Xavi all along...?
Have never seen both of them in the same room
Absolutely, 70% gone, bring in 2 or 3 experienced players that fit the system and build around Nico and Pedri, Araujo, Garcia, Fati and move from there. Cavani would be sensational for this team, lead from the front for a season or two. Theres a lot of young talent to work with but he needs hardworking experienced players like back in the day when Barca brought in Beletti, Edemilson, Guily, Larsson etc.
Would be quite the Scoobie Doo unmasking moment, heyF. Torres and Cavani would be very good options.
